Barnes & Noble #1 Most Reputable Retailer in America as Amazon’s Reputation in the US Drops

515 Days ago

Reputation Institute’s 2018 US Retail RepTrak® shows products and services, governance and citizenship as most important drivers for stakeholder support in retail

Boston, MA, Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reputation Institute (RI), the world’s leading provider of reputation intelligence, today announced the 2018 US Retail RepTrak® rankings. The largest corporate reputation study of its kind, the US Retail RepTrak is based on nearly 10,000 individual ratings from among the informed US general public and based on an assessment of 88 nominated companies. The survey quantifies the emotional bond stakeholders have with leading companies and how these connections drive supportive behavior such as the willingness to purchase a company’s products, recommend the brand, invest or work for the company.

Barnes & Nobles attained the top position in the 2018 US Retail RepTrak with the best reputation overall; Publix achieved a top position as the most reputable grocery chain; and Tiffany’s ranked as the most reputable in luxury goods.

The top reputation leaders are yielding the benefits in a challenging retail environment. While the retail industry reputation has declined 2.8 points compared with 2017, the top five companies with the highest scores in offering products at good value for the money have 4% higher willingness to buy by the general public than the average retail aggregate score; higher perceived product value equates to an increase in purchase intent.

“What you sell and stand for matters,” said William Shifflett, Vice President, Reputation Institute. “Delivering on products, governance, and citizenship is a priority for retail companies when creating a strong reputation foundation.”

2018 results demonstrate a new priority of ethical consumerism.

“The pubic increasingly cares about the ethics behind the goods they purchase, wanting to understand if the products are created with integrity and if the companies practice moral policies,” explained Meghan Burke, Research Analyst, Reputation Institute. “If retail companies do not act in such ways, they will lose reputation.”

Purpose-driven retail companies with enhanced brand strength have a higher reputation, and that is increasingly important as retail brand strength has decreased by 3.6 points since 2017. Barnes & Noble attained the top position with the strongest emotional connection and on the key drivers of reputation, such as governance and citizenship. Likewise, Publix’s inclusion in the top 10 also reflects strong placement in the dimensions of citizenship, workplace, supporting good causes and positive influence on society.

Between 2014 and 2016, Amazon was the most reputable company in the US. In 2017, the company ranked first in the US retail industry. The 2018 US Retail RepTrak results indicate that this year Amazon’s reputation story enters a new chapter with its reputation dropping from excellent to strong. Along with a 4.5-point reputation drop, Amazon experienced a decline across all dimensions, most significantly in workplace, citizenship and governance.

Among companies facing reputation challenges, Abercrombie & Fitch is the least reputable retail company with a score of 53.5. Abercrombie & Fitch ranked with the lowest score in citizenship, the lowest score in having a positive influence on society, the second lowest score in products/services, and the second lowest score on offering products at a good value for money.

Annually, RI measures the reputation of thousands of companies using the RepTrak framework, including measures of the most highly regarded multinational companies in 15 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Reputation Institute powers the world’s most reputable companies. By mining media conversation and measuring stakeholder perceptions, we unleash the power of reputation intelligence to build better companies. Our RepTrak® model analyzes the reputation of cities, countries, people, and companies and is best known as the Forbes-published Global RT100. Underlying the model for mining, measuring, and managing reputation is the RepTrak methodology, known as the global gold standard for calibrating reputation.

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